The Hugo Awards were given yesterday (September 4,…

SFFaudio News

The Hugo Awards were given yesterday (September 4, 2004) and here are the results:

Best Novel: Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

Best Novella: “The Cookie Monster” by Vernor Vinge

Best Novelette: “Legions in Time” by Michael Swanwick

Best Short Story: “A Study in Emerald” by Neil Gaiman

Best Related Book: The Chesley Awards for Science Fiction and Fantasy Art: A Retrospective by John Grant, Elizabeth L. Humphrey, and Pamela D. Scoville

Best Dramatic Presentation, short form: Gollum’s Acceptance Speech at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards

Best Dramatic Presentation, long form: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Best Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois

Best Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton

Best Semiprozine: Locus, Charles N. Brown, Jennifer A. Hall, and Kirsten Gong-Wong, eds.

Best Fanzine: Emerald City, Cheryl Morgan, ed.

Best Fan Writer: Dave Langford

Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu

A big surprise to me was that Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form award. Gollum’s Acceptance Speech? Come on, people. The Firefly episode entitled “The Message” was deserving of the award. If you get a chance to see that series, do! You won’t be disappointed – it’s excellent, and available on DVD. A feature film is in the works.

The only item here represented on audio (or about to be represented on audio) is Lois McMaster Bujold’s Paladin of Souls. Blackstone Audio has published the first volume in that series, entitled The Curse of Chalion, and will publish Paladin of Souls soon.

Congratulations to all the nominees and award winners!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Books on Tape was purchased a couple of years ago …

SFFaudio News

Books on Tape was purchased a couple of years ago by Random House. Last week, they decided to close the rental division of the company. Most of the unabridged titles that have been produced during that time were available in retail editions on the Random House Audio imprint – I expect that will continue to be the case. Questions abound regarding their backlist, which includes books by Isaac Asimov, Robert Jordan, Frank Herbert, and Terry Brooks.

Right now, the company is selling their used rental copies at rental prices – that is, whatever they charged to rent a title is now the purchase price. While supplies last, as they say.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Back on July 2nd, the Mark Time Science Fiction Au…

SFFaudio News

Back on July 2nd, the Mark Time Science Fiction Audio Awards and the Ogle Fantasy Audio Awards for the production year 2003 were given. The awards, for excellence in audio theater, were given at the Convergence science fiction convention in Bloomington, MN.

GOLD MARK TIME AWARD

The Convergence

Jeffrey Adams, writer/producer, International Falls, MN.

www.storiesonmp3.com

Interdimensional invaders decide to make their move through a local science fiction convention.

SILVER MARK TIME AWARD

“A Man Walks Into A Bar”: The Arbiter Chronicles, Episode 2

Steven H. Wilson, writer/producer.

Prometheus Radio Theatre, Elkridge, Maryland.

www.prometheusradiotheatre.com

The ship’s telepath kills an alien to protect another crewmember, but absorbs his personality in the process, becoming a danger to everyone on board.

HONORABLE MENTION

“The ShadowMan”

Marc Rose and Jerel McQuen

Dry Smoke and Whispers Holodio Theater, Beaverton, OR.

Transdimensional Media LLC.

www.drysmoke.com

Telepathic detective, Emille Song, is dragged around through interdimensional trapdoors by The ShadowMan. But whose side is this mysterious ShadowMan on?

GOLD OGLE AWARD

“The Field”

Lance Roger Axt, producer. Pacific Grove, CA. Written by Elizabeth Benjamin.

Play It By Ear

A couple argue about the Indians digging up ancestors in their yard, eventually telling one of the diggers about the strange things that have been happening since they began.

SILVER OGLE AWARD

“Howl of the Mac Tire”

Roger Gregg, writer/producer, Dublin, Ireland.

Crazy Dog Audio Theatre.

www.crazydogaudiotheater.com

On a lonely mountain above the sheep fields of Dun Mac Cu Tiré, something fiendish is on the prowl. Detective Maeve O’Casey and her partner Matt Griffin set a trap, but for what?

HONORABLE MENTION

“A Murder of Crows” – Three short works for Halloween.

Sam Mowry and Martin Gallagher, producers.

Willamette Radio Workskhop, Portland, OR.

www.radiowork.com

An original compendium of horror, suspense and the supernatural, performed live.

A Special Lifetime Achievement Award was also given to Dirk Maggs, who is currently involved with the latest Hitchhiker’s Guide shows.

Find further details on these awards here!

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Just got a press release announcing the creation o…

Just got a press release announcing the creation of a company named Paperback Digital. The company will publish audiobooks in MP3 format for sale on it’s website (www.paperbackdigital.com) and on Fictionwise.com. The audiobooks will be sold on MP3-CD and as download!

Paperback Digital will make it titles available for the first time over Labor Day weekend at the World Science Fiction Convention being held in Boston. The titles that will be available:

1634: The Galileo Affair by Eric Flint and Andrew Dennis, $19.95, Length: 21 Hours; 2 MP3-CDs

Eric Flint moves the focus of his best-selling alternate history series to Venice and a host of new characters. Hippy Tom Stone founds a modern pharmaceutical industry while his sons rescue a very different Galileo than the history books record. Meanwhile Father Mazzare defends Galileo at his trial and faces the Church, testing his faith and showing the complexities of 17th Century theology…

Hardcover published by: Baen Books

Spirits In The Wires by Charles de Lint, $14.95, Length: 17 Hours; 1 MP3-CD

When the popular Newford website Wordwood crashes, everyone who was logged in disappears into thin air. Writer Christy Riddell and his friends must travel into that netherworld of spirits and elves to rescue their companions by doing battle with the spirit who powers this world before it can cause more harm…

Simultaneous publication with TOR Books trade paperback release

Coming October 1st will be:

Cally’s War by John Ringo and Julie Cochrane, $25.00, Length: 14 Hours; 1 MP3-CD

For as long as Cally could remember, she had lived in danger. While her father was off fighting the invading Posleen she had been raised by her grandfather, on the front-lines of a war that had erased five billion humans from the face of the earth. Cally has been fighting for the future of the human race, but now she’s in a war for the survival of her soul….

Simultaneous publication with Baen Books hardcover release

And on Halloween:

Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris, $14.95, Length: 12 Hours 30 Minutes; 1 MP3-CD

The first book in Harris’ best-selling Southern Vampire Mystery series. Roadhouse

waitress Sookie Stackhouse has a problem: she can read minds. And who wants to go on a date with a guy when you can’t get near him without seeing the images of yourself flitting through his head. It was just easier to stay home and watch TV. Until the night she got a bottle of beer for a new customer and found one man whose minds was a blank wall to her. What difference did it make that he was a vampire? …

Mass Market paperback published by: Ace Books

On November 1st, Paperback Digital will release:

Reflex by Steven Gould, $23.95, Length: 14 Hours, 1 MP3-CD

The sequel to Gould’s 1992 best-selling debut novel, Jumper, this new novel picks up 10 years later, when Davy is kidnapped by a fanatic who wants the secret of teleportation and his wife, Millie, has to rescue him. She has no idea of where or how to start, until she falls and reflexively jumps to safety.

Simultaneous publication with TOR Books hardcover release

On December 1st, Paperback Digital will release:

Survival, Species Imperative 1 by Julie E. Czerneda, $14.95, Length: 16 Hours, 1 MP3-CD

When her field research station is mysteriously attacked, marine biologist Dr. Mackenzie Connor must flee for her life. Joining forces with an alien archaeologist, she escapes to his planet on a quest to find a defense against the unknown aggressor—before they launch a fullscale invasion of Earth.

Hardcover published by: DAW Books

All my best to them! May Paperback Digital enjoy a prosperous long life!

Review of Bimbos of the Death Sun by Sharyn McCrumb

Bimbos of the Death Sun
By Sharyn McCrumb; read by Ruth Ann Phimister
4 Cassettes – 6 Hours /[UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Recorded Books
Published: 1999
ISBN: 0788768867
Themes: / Science Fiction Convention / Mystery / Humor / Fandom /

“A quaint airport hotel hosts an SF convention that is positively swarming with sword and sorcery aficionados, unfortunately the guest of honor is found with a bullet through his cold little heart. Its obvious who did it, its author, Sharyn McCrumb”*
-Commander Rick, Prisoners Of Gravity

Appin Dungannon, the guest of honor at RubiCon, a regional science fiction convention has been murdered. He had written a seemingly endless, and highly profitable, series of swords-and-sorcery novels about a Celtic warrior with a magic sword. He had spent every moment at this particular con, and many previous, making a general nuisance of himself and ridiculing his own fans and the costume contest entrants. So its no real wonder that he wound up dead. The only question is ‘who did it?’ With so many suspects how can the murder be solved? After all the police don’t know the terrain, they don’t understand Klingon! Thankfully, Jay Omega, an engineering professor at a local university and author of the lamentably titled “Bimbos of The Death Sun” is up to the task of separating the murderers from the mere nerds.

First published in 1988, the computer technology references, like everyone still using floppy diskettes (!), is the only thing that really dates this funny novel.

Billed as a murder mystery satire, Bimbos of the Death Sun does have those elements. But considering the murder takes place more than half way through the book and the requisite whodunit scenes aren’t the primary focus even after the late murder, I see it more as straight satire of the convention culture that fans of fantasy and science fiction have built for themselves. For those interested, in such a straight mystery with a comedic touch I highly recommend you check out Isaac Asimov’s much underrated Murder At The ABA. Bimbos though, does have a few of the murder mystery necessities – like the very Rex Stoutish ‘I suppose your wondering why I’ve gathered you all here’ scene, but even then it does take place over a game of Dungeons and Dragons. McCrumb, an Edgar award winner, apparently got a strong negative reaction to the novel from what she calls “the sort of person who has a degree in physics and works at McDonalds, but its okay because on weekends he’s a Viking warrior.”* I can kind of see why though, she’s pretty ruthless – exposing the extreme geekitude of many SF conventioneers, but given that she appears to be carrying an outsider’s perspective (McCrumb is mainly known as a mystery author) its surprising just how accurately she’s portrayed the atmosphere of a con. I think she’s a little too familiar with the convention mindset to be entirely in contempt of it. And remember that in 1988 being a nerd wasn’t quite the same thing as being a nerd now. One other minor worry is that for such a short novel, a mere 6 hours (224 pages), the many character perspectives would seem to hamper the mystery elements, and I suppose it would if I were to critique it as a murder mystery alone it would be a concern. A mystery fan alone may have felt cheated, as a fan of both mysteries, science fiction, and its satirization, I didn’t.

Bimbos comes on four cassettes and packaged in the “Collector’s Edition,” an affordably priced, lightweight packaging that’s durable enough for a private collection but not durable enough for a library. A clear plastic sheet protects the printed insert containing the original cover art, which depicts the in-novel described cover art of Jay Omega’s own novel. Such touches are much appreciated by collectors like myself and Recorded Books has always been the standard bearer for outstanding original cover art on audiobooks.

Bimbos is full of jokes and comedic commentaries of fannish behavior, there’s plenty of fun for narrator Ruth Ann Phimister to play with. Her performance, including a funny Scottish accent, was always most appropriate and always in tone with the mood of the text, a lighthearted performance of a lighthearted visit to a fictional SF convention. I truly look forward to her reading of the sequel, entitled Zombies Of The Gene Pool, which is also available from Recorded Books.

* Quotations taken from Prisoners Of Gravity episode on “S.F. Mysteries”.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Here’s an interesting audio story from NPR’s Morni…

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s an interesting audio story from NPR’s Morning Edition entitled: Dungeons and Dragons Turns 30.

This Thursday night in Indianapolis, fans of role-playing and war games will gather for the annual GenCon convention. And this year, they’ll be marking the 30th anniversary of the most popular game in the genre’s history — Dungeons and Dragons, known by its fans by the shorthand “D and D.”

In the modern era of virtual reality, NPR’s Rick Karr reports that the original, unplugged version of the game remains popular and has proved a key influence on the next generation of video games.

Click here for the whole story, which includes a link to listen to the NPR story and a web extra link to listen to a game of D & D being played.

Posted by Jesse Willis